Edge of In(s)anity
by Demiser of D
Summary: Cage finds himself locked into a new loop, and facing a new invasion, years in the future. Should he plan for that? Nah, let's just mess with everyone. Unfortunately, destiny seems to disagree, but screw destiny, darn it!


_I've been writing drabbles of various things as I deal with being alive and in life. This is one of those drabbles, it's been written for a bit, and the amount of EoT fanfic is terrifyingly limited. So here...we...go._

* * *

><p><strong>Edge of Yesterday<strong>

* * *

><p>"Rita, it's still happening."<p>

Rita stares at him, uncomprehending; she doesn't know who he is, what they've done. He groans. "Look, I don't want to have to explain this all again. Alpha Blood, Time Resetting, Hunted Omega, Found Omega, Killed Omega, _Omega_ Blood, resetting back to today!"

Rita reacted to this; her eyes narrowed. "You killed the Omega? Then why is the invasion still happening? Why are they still out there?"

Cage shook his head, "They're not. They're all dead. All of them. News hasn't reached here yet, but it will in about...six minutes. Give or take a few seconds. But that doesn't matter, Rita!" He ran his hands through his hair, eyes crazed, "We did it, we killed it, it's gone, and _I'm still resetting!"_

"How many times? What have you tried so far?"

"_Nothing._ It was supposed to stop when we killed the Omega, but it's actually gotten _worse._ This time it took me back a week. A _week."_

"If the invasion is canceled, how did you die? What else is going to happen?" He didn't respond immediately, and she grabbed his arms insistently, "_What else is going to happen!?"_

"_Nothing!" _He took a deep breath, "I, uh...well, I was celebrating a bit hard and I...well, I fell off something."

She stared at him. "You fell off something."

"Yeah."

"And you died."

"Well, it _was_ a jet."

"You fell off a jet."

"And it was 40000 feet up."

"..."

"Yeah, well, I was kind of drunk at the time. But that doesn't matter! I hit ground, and _boom; _I'm right back in that damn helicopter, flying into base. The Omega is dead, the loops shouldn't be happening anymore!"

Rita stared at him for a long moment, then turned around. "Come on. I'm not the one you should be talking to."

"_Thank _you. Carter never listens to me if I come to him without you."

Her frown deepens, but Cage finally smiles. "Your middle name is Rose, by the way."

Rita stopped dead for an instant, then continued on as if nothing had happened.

* * *

><p>Dr. Carter leaned back, Cage's pupils slowly shrinking back to normal.<p>

"You've done all this stuff before, doc."

"No I haven't. That was _Alpha _blood. If you've got Omega blood in you, anything could be different."

Cage glanced at him, slightly worried. "Is it?"

Carter snorted, "No. As far as I can tell, you're in perfect health."

"Then the reset?"

Carter shrugged, "Who knows. The mimics are still dead, though, so I doubt it's anything to do with them. Maybe the entire power got transferred to you this time."

Rita had been watching the scene unfold, and now she leaned forward, "So what now? How do we deal with it?"

Carter looked at her and raised an eyebrow, "Deal with it? There's nothing to deal with. It's not like he has to keep resetting like you did before." he stood up and shrugged, "This has got to be the easiest cure ever prescribed by a doctor, ever; just don't die. Stay alive and your problems will miraculously fail to appear." He glanced down to a pager on his waist, "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got...things...to attend to," he said vaguely before waving cheekily at them, "Bye, Rita."

She nodded curtly. Once he was gone, her eyes lasered into Cage. "You know my middle name. My _real_ middle name. How?"

Chase grinned lopsidedly, "You learn a lot when you're in the loop."

Rita scowled, "I've never told _anyone_ my middle name. It's not in official records. How do you know?" she stood and walked over to him, wrenched him to his feet, and stared into his eyes. "How..." she leaned close enough that her lips were nearly touching his, "...do you know, Cage?"

* * *

><p><em>Five Years Later<em>

* * *

><p>"Oh hell. Rita! Rita! Rita, stay with me! Rita!"<p>

She didn't respond; her head was lolling back, and blood was pooling around her body. Damn it, there weren't any medics _left_; He had to reset. If it still worked. But what about Rita? He couldn't just leave her behind; not like this. Not to die.

"Rita, you remember that idea I had? The one you said was stupid and suicidal? Well, I'm going to try it. Stop me now if you don't want me to."

She lay there, still and silent. "Good." He reached out and slit his wrist on her sword, and held his hand over her face, and watched in morbid silence as his blood ate its way into her face. Then he brought the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger.

"AAAHHH!"

Cage leapt to his feet, every nerve on fire. He had to find a medic, he had to save her-

And then he realized he was on the Helicopter, taking him to land at London Base.

"You alright back there, Sir?" The pilot called.

Cage forced his breathing to calm, and slowly sat down, even though his limbs were twitching like they were burning alive. "No...I mean yeah, no problem." He looked out at the Base, mumbling, "No problem at all."

He sat there morosely until the Copter landed—how do you just throw away 5 years of your life with the most important person in your life? Could he do it all over again with Rita, only to watch her die at the end? How could he-

The instant the helicopter touched ground, a slender figure ripped the door open and launched its way inside, before glaring down at him. "Get up and kiss me, you idiot."

Cage had Rita in his arms before she could finish her sentence, his lips mashed against hers. A few minutes later, after they had extricated themselves from each others arms, he drew back. "It worked!" he said wonderingly, stroking her face, "You came back, too!"

She glared at him, "Yes. And you're an idiot for trying it. If it hadn't worked, you'd have lost your powers and I wouldn't have gotten anything, and then _everyone_ would be fucked."

Cage half nodded; victory wouldn't have meant anything if she wasn't there with him for it.

They stood there, staring at each other, for nearly a minute. Finally they sighed simultaneously. "What are we supposed to do now?" Cage said, watching as celebrations suddenly began to ignite across the base. "Just live the five years over again?

"Hell no. We know they're coming again, now. Now we can begin to plan."

Cage watched a suited soldier lumber by outside the chopper. "And build. They seemed to be more advanced this time; they were faster, more agile, more deadly."

"Yeah. Even the Mark 2 jackets didn't seem to make much difference. We need something better. Something faster, stronger..."

Their eyes met, the words unspoken; they needed to talk to Carter.

* * *

><p>"Wait wait wait, back up. You're saying you're <em>both<em> locked into a loop this time? And it's five _years_ long?"

"Pretty much, yep."

"We need your help, Dr. Carter. The Mimics came back."

Carter sank into a chair. "Aw, hell. Why couldn't you wait until_ after_ the party to let me know this stuff?"

"We'll do that next time."

Carter snorted, "Fat lot of good that does me now. So what do you want? If I cant be drinking I might as well be working."

"We need better suits and weapons. The Mimics were different this time; stronger, faster, much more deadly. We barely took down two hundred of them apiece before Rita got fragged."

Carter snorted even louder this time, inelegantly turning the snort into a cough when Rita glared at him. "Two hundred...you do know I'm a medical doctor, not an engineer, right? Right, of course you do. Well, do you have the Jacket Mk. 2 designs?"

Cage blinked. "Of course not, they're in the future."

Carter threw his hands in the air. "Well then there's not much I can bloody do, is there? Go out, get those designs, and reset again! _Then_ maybe I can do something! But for now, just get out! I'm going to go celebrate. Heaven knows I need a bloody drink."

* * *

><p>What do you do when five years of your life has been suddenly erased? On the one hand, it felt like a lot of things had been stolen from them. On the other hand, though...they realized that not that much had been stolen at all. They had been married. In a small, private ceremony, because who could really understand what had happened to them but each other? Cage, like Rita, had gone from being a bright, cheerful person to a bitter, shell-shocked veteran in the course of a single day, and their families couldn't understand the change. Even five years later, neither Cage nor his family had really adjusted.<p>

"So...five new years."

"...yep."

"What do we do now?"

"I suppose we should try to get ready for the next invasion."

They looked at each other.

"Or we could troll the hell out of everybody."

"Yeah, that sounds much more fun."

Neither of them really smiled, not on the outside, not anymore, but they knew each other well enough to sense it hiding on the inside. Cage nodded, "Well, we'd better get to it."

* * *

><p>January 1st, 2025<p>

"_Angel of Verdun Claims Psychic Powers; Predicts Beijing Earthquake!"_

February 6th, 2025

"_Angel of Verdun Continues Predictions; F5 Tornado Appears on Schedule!"_

February 22nd, 2025

"_Angel of Verdun Predicts Nuclear Meltdown; Thousands Saved!"_

March 28th, 2025

"_Psychic Angel of Verdun Predicts Alien Invasion in Three Days!"_

April 1st, 2025

"_Angel of Verdun says: APRIL FOOLS!"_

April 4th, 2025

"_Millions Spent on Abortive Alien Invasion Plans."_

April 9th, 2025

"_United States vs Angel of Verdun; News of Lawsuit Sweeps Nation!"_

June 4th, 2025

"_Psychic Cannot Be Sued For Faulty Predictions, Court Rules." "It's your fault for believing in psychics, anyway," Says Rita Vrataski._

June 5th, 2025

"_Angel of Verdun Predicts Tomorrow's Lotto Number; Psychic or Charlatan? "_

June 6th, 2025

"_Tens of thousands win lottery. Rita Vrataski; 'Just Lucky, I Guess.'"_

June 10th, 2025

"_Angel of Verdun Assassinated; "It had to be done!" Claims Assassin._

* * *

><p>"Well that ended quicker than I'd have hoped," Cage said after reuniting with Rita on the tarmac, "How did they get you?"<p>

Rita snorted in disgust, "Nine Millimeter in the back. All the training to fight mimics, and I never even considered that a human might try to assassinate me. Stupid."

Cage studied her expression carefully before pulling her into an embrace, pressing his lips to the top of her head lightly, "It's alright, I'm here."

She snorted, mumbling into his chest, "I already know that, idiot."

"So, what now?"

Rita's eyes narrowed, "I have just the thing."

* * *

><p>"<em>Angel of Verdun Arrested for Murder!<em>

* * *

><p>"Okay, so that didn't work."<p>

Cage was looking at his future(former? Past-present? Even with all the loops he'd been through, he'd never figured out how exactly to refer to that.) wife with an odd expression. "Rita, shouldn't we be taking this a bit more seriously? There's an alien invasion coming in five years."

Rita snorted, "You don't get it, do you, Cage? We're not tied into _their_ loop anymore. Somehow you've co-opted their power entirely; we're in _your_ loop. That means a few things." she started ticking off on her fingers, "It means that if we kill one of their Alphas, it probably wont reset us, too. We might suddenly find ourselves fighting an enemy that knows our every move, our every weakness. And we've got one major one." she poked her finger into Cage's chest. "You. You get your blood replaced, we're both history."

Cage took that in. It was pure speculation, but it made sense...to a point. "If that's the case, why did the loop stop when the Omega died, but I still loop when I die?"

Rita frowned, "I don't know. But until we know exactly what causes the loops, we'll need to be _very careful."_

"Then why are you murdering random civilians in front of the ambassador of Australia!?"

"Keep up, Cage. This isn't a game, but at the same time, it kinda is. We can't get our blood replaced, but anything else is fair game. Back at Verdun, at Paris, we couldn't do anything but fight. We didn't have the time. But here, Cage..." slowly an anticipatory smile spread across her face, "Here, we've got five years. Do you realize what that means!?"

Cage raised an eyebrow, "We finally have time to get you psychological help?"

"You too," she replied without missing a beat, "But there's so much more! We could go to America, see your family-" she faltered as she saw his expression, but soldiered on, "Or other things! Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon; places the mimics never touched. We could do anything we want!"

"As long as we don't get our blood replaced."

"As long as we don't get our blood replaced," she agreed, "But come on, Cage, we'll be sightseeing, not fighting a war! We'll stay entirely out of dangerous situations." She tried to smile again, and while it came out a little weird, it was there. "Come, how hard could it be?"

* * *

><p><em>Two Weeks Later<em>

* * *

><p>"Give me your wallets!" the skinheaded thug pointed a comically tiny knife in their direction, before leering at Rita, "And you there! Drop the bag...and show me your tits! And hurry up about it!"<p>

"Seriously?" Cage stared at him incredulously before he rolled his eyes. "You've gotta be the third unluckiest person in the world."

Rita looked at him curiously, "Who are the first and second?"

Cage raised an eyebrow, and Rita quickly got it. "Ah. Right. Us."

That seemed to confuse the mugger, but he covered it up with an angry scowl. "Hey man, just gimme the wallet! I'll do it, I really will!"

Cage glanced over at Rita, who was slowly unzipping the long bag she had slung over her shoulder. He sighed. "How hard could it be, you said. What are the chances, you said."

Rita rolled her eyes as she pulled the massive sword from her bag. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Hey there, asshole." she grinned ferally as the mugger's eyes slowly widened. "That's not a knoife," she said in a terrible Australian accent, "THIS is a knoife!"

* * *

><p>By the third month of their vacation, they didn't even pretend to be surprised anymore. When the armed, masked men burst into the bank they happened to be inside, their response was instantaneous.<p>

They'd tried to avoid this. They tried to avoid banks in general, actually; after the first month, and the worst rash of bank robberies in living history, they generally gave them at least a 5 block radius. Unfortunately, circumstances beyond their control had an irritating way of happening far too often and putting them where they least wanted to be.

"Everyone on the grou-"

Six shots rang out, and a very surprised(and dead) gang of thugs flew back into the wall and slid to the floor. Rita and Cage holstered their guns and likewise slid to the floor, and watched in faint amusement as the crowds burst into chaos.

* * *

><p>A few minutes later, once the initial panic had passed, a very disoriented security guard came over to them. "Um, excuse me," he said cautiously, eying the sidearms discreetly holstered at their sides, "Why are you sitting on the floor?"<p>

Cage glanced up, glanced at the bodies, and shrugged. "They told us to."

The guard blinked. "But you shot them."

Cage shrugged again, "They didn't tell us not to."

He glanced helplessly at a policeman next to him, who quickly stepped in. "Erm...we're going to have to take you in for questioning."

Cage shrugged. "If that's what you think is best."

* * *

><p>"Do you have any idea what sort of political shitstorm you got me into, sergeant!?"<p>

The Sergeant scowled right back, "I was just doing my job, sir. Find the witnesses, bring them in for questioning. That's what we do."

"Not when one of the witnesses is the frakking Angel of Verdun!"

Eyes widened. "She's-?"

"Yeah, that's right." The Police Chief spun around angrily, "Now what the hell am I supposed to do? I've got half the militaries in the world breathing down my neck on one side, and three fourths of those damn peaceniks breathing down the other side!"

"Er, maybe you could-"

The Chief leveled a finger at the Sergeant, "I don't need any more help from you! Get out! Consider yourself on vacation until this whole mess washes over!"

"But sir!"

The Chief waved a hand, "Paid vacation, of course. I'm not a monster. Now get the hell out!" his scowl was quickly replaced by a faint smile. "I know you've been wanting more time with your kids, anyway. Take them on a vacation. Preferably somewhere _far away_, if you catch my drift." He raised an eyebrow, and the Sergeant slowly nodded. "Now get the hell out! I don't want to see you for at least another two weeks!"

The Sergeant confusedly backed out. Once he was gone, the Chief snorted, pulling out a dark cigar and lighting it. "Now," he muttered, puffing around the cigar as he walked to his window, where he looked down at the hundreds of angry people outside. Suddenly he wished _he_ could take a vacation, too. "Now, I've just gotta deal with this mess." They were just civilians. How hard could it be?

* * *

><p>"Well that could have gone better."<p>

Rita glared at him. "How could I have known they'd blow up the building!?"

"There's this thing called 'tempting fate'..."

"Oh, shut up."

* * *

><p>Cage stepped out of the Helicopter again; Rita wasn't here to greet him, but honestly, he wasn't too surprised. That fight they'd had last loop had been <em>legendary<em>. After the abortive vacation loop, they'd gotten a...bit angry with one another. One thing led to another, and...well, very few romantic conflicts climaxed with nuclear weapons strikes.

For a moment, he considered rushing straight to her quarters to...what? He shook his head; probably better not to bother her yet, actually. Their fights were always fun, but sometimes he'd found it better for their relationship if he waited a few days between the end of one fight and the beginning of another.

A young officer approached him and saluted. "Sir, the General is requesting your presence immediately."

Cage raised an eyebrow. That was different. Sometime Rita had done, maybe? He put on his winning smile. "Don't worry, officer; the mimics are done for. The news should come in any time now."

The officer smiled halfheartedly, "I hope so, sir. But the news already came; the Mimics are surging towards the shore and the General wants to push the invasion ahead by three hours. So I'll need you to come with me now." his hand rested on his sidearm conspicuously, as if he'd been told to expect resistance. "...Sir."

...What.

Oh. _Hell. _No.

Cage numbly let himself be led into the General's office, and soon enough he was reliving that same moment he'd gone through before the loops ever started. But as the General tried to tell him about the invasion plans; plans he knew a hundred—no, a thousand times better than the General ever could, he couldn't remain silent any longer.

"You're wrong, General," he said sharply, ignoring the irritated look the General gave him, "The Mimics know we're coming. They're going to be ready for us." He stood and walked to the map, "We should saturate these areas with heavy fire before landing, and fire off progressive sweeps into the mainland, or half our people won't even make it to the shoreline."

The General raised an eyebrow. "You do your job, Major, and let me do mine. They're gradually moving towards the shoreline, but even so, your contingent will be far away from the action."

Cage growled under his breath, but didn't reply; there was no reason for the General to trust him, not when he was supposed to be a lazy media man. "Sir, respectfully request permission to change locations. Here, in the second wave." He tapped a spot on the map.

The general's eyes narrowed. "Now why would you be wanting to do that?" He glanced back at the map, "I want you to survive, Major, and do your job. Not-" he paused, looking thoughtful, and finally nodded in understanding, "Ah, of course. That's the regiment containing the...what do you media people call her? The 'Angel of Verdun'? Thinking of getting some good footage of her, hmm?" He snorted, "There's such a thing as taking your job too seriously, Major. Still, this is better than I expected of yeh. Maybe you're not the coward I thought you were, after all. Permission Granted." He looked down and began scribbling on a piece of paper, his dismissal assumed. Cage saluted and backed out of the room. Just as he was about to the door, the General looked up again. "Oh, and Cage?" He smiled blandly. "Try not to die."

"That's the idea, sir."

"Good man."

* * *

><p>"Who gave you permission to talk to me?"<p>

Cage felt like he'd been dropped in ice. She didn't remember; somehow, she'd forgotten everything. Had it been his fault? Had her blood been replaced when they'd been apart? What...what was he supposed to do now?

And why the hell were the Mimics back?

The fist came out of nowhere; it slammed into his jaw like a freight train and sent him flying. Right. Rita had a hell of a punch. And apparently he'd been letting his skills go lax.

"I asked you a question, Major."

But fighting was like riding a bicycle; sometimes you just had to...jump back on. Cage swept a leg out to knock Rita's from beneath her and turned the movement into a spin that threw him to his feet. A half second later, she hit the ground and he was staring down at her instead of the other way around. "My name is William Cage. We-" his words caught in his throat. What did you say to the person you'd married when they didn't even remember your name? Finally, he managed to get something out. "Your middle name is Rose."

She had been about to swing her legs out, trying to reverse their positions again, but froze dead at the mention of her name. Cage leaned forward slightly, letting one of the practice drones buzz by a millimeter from the back of his head. After so long practicing in here, he knew the baseline attack patterns better than most people knew the back of their hands.

She leapt to her feet and stared him dead in the eye. "Who told you that name? Tell me, or by god I'll-"

"You did." Cage actually stumbled a bit, his weight seeming to settle onto him like a bag of bricks. "Tomorrow. One of them, anyway."

Her eyes widened. "You're looping."

Cage wearily nodded. Rita's eyes narrowed in concern.

"You've been looping for a long time. A long, _long_ time."

Cage cracked a humorless smile. "You have no idea." Rita started to say something, but Cage spoke first. "You're going to tell me to follow you, because we need to see Carter. But I've already seen Carter. I saw him a thousand times, maybe more. You're going to tell me you can train me, but honestly, Rita..." he leaned back slightly, the blades skimming past his nose close enough to trace across his skin, "Does it look like I need training?"

She was glaring at him now. "So you're just giving up? Just letting them win?"

That brought an involuntary laugh. "Giving up? Rita, we _won._ We killed it. We lived for five years. We...we..."

Her eyes widened in realization. "We had a thing, didn't we."

Cage grimaced, and he wasn't sure if it was pain or humor. "Yeah. You could say that."

* * *

><p>The Condor listed to the left.<p>

So here he was. Flying into battle again. For the first time. For some reason, maybe it was cosmic imperative, maybe kismet, or maybe just the ponderous movement of the military machine, he was once again in the exact same spot he'd been before, riding into battle with the people of J squad. It was funny, really; the first time he'd been here they'd seemed fearless, almost invincible. Warriors, Killers, not people.

Now, though, he could see the terror hiding behind their bravado. They joked and they bragged because inside, they were about to piss themselves from fear of dying.

Well, not if he could he could help it.

The Condor listed again, and the guy across from him struggled to keep his bile down.

"Come on, man; you throw up in your suit and you'll regret it."

"Tell that to the bloody pilot! 'e's flying like he hit a keger before he got in the bloody cockpit!"

Cage smiled. Damage the port engines? Check. It was pretty simple, really. For infantry combat Mimics were just like humans, relying on speed and firepower to fight. But at long range, they used their time sense more than anything else. Who needs to look when you know exactly where the target is? But if something happened—say, an engine got slightly damaged—that put the target out of its expected path...

The bottom of the Condor opened up, and Sarge stepped out. "Stand by to deploy! Activate Drop Lines! Remember-!" He paused a moment as the Condor shook slightly, as if something large had passed nearby, and then he continued, not noticing Cage's even wider grin. "Remember, regroup at Zero Zero Delta after establishing a perimeter!" He glanced over J squad, measuring them, then nodded. "You're as ready as you'll ever be. GO, GO, GO! DROP NOW!"

Cage hit the ground like a feather...and dropped right into the middle of a pack of Mimics. "Ah, hell-" he blasted into one of them, using the momentum from the weapon to launch himself backwards, slamming his armored fist into a second like a pile driver, splattering it across the ground. Then he activated his heavy cannons, heel-slid down the dune he was standing on, and blew the rest of the pack to hell.

Then he spun around to take in his situation. The Mimics were already here; they were early, and all across the beach, the different squads were getting annihilated. Only his presence had prevented the same thing from happening to J squad.

"J Squad!" he bellowed, "Form up around me! You will follow my commands precisely! You will do exactly as I say, if you have any _hope_ of surviving! I'll take point; Griff, Kimmel, I want you to cover the flanks, keep anything from getting close! Ford, Kuntz, you focus on long range, take'em out before they get here! And Nance, Skinner, and Takeda...watch my back."

J squad looked to Sgt Farell for confirmation, but before he could give it, another pair of Mimics were on them; Cage blasted one apart with his arm cannon before grabbing a flaming metal pipe from a pile of debris that had been a Condor and crushing the second Mimic with a wet metal _thud._ Then he was off into the battlefield.

Kimmel stared after Cage for a half second that seemed to last for minutes. How the hell did Cage move so fast? How did a media stooge know how to take down mimics in hand to hand combat? How was this idiot the guy that was saving their lives!?

"...Do what he says! Form up around Cage! Nance, give us air support, I want those javelins shot out of the air before they can hit! Move, move, move!"

Cage slowly opened his eyes. They'd lost; of course they'd lost, he'd tried to fight the entire mimic army with eight people.

Still, a one to ten thousand k/d ratio wasn't bad. The blood and pain and death had almost been enough for him to forget that Rita was gone. Not Rita as a whole, of course, but _his_ Rita. That is, until he saw her dead body lying there on the battlefield. He imagined J squad had been pretty surprised when he'd shot himself in the head.

He lay his head back, the roar of the helicopter, more familiar than the voices of his parents, soothing him. Maybe he could just go to sleep. Just rest...

The world forgotten, he faded back into darkness.

* * *

><p>He woke to the feel of lips on his own. "Rita..." he mumbled. Then his eyes snapped open. "Rita?"<p>

She settled her head against his. "I thought I'd lost you," she said quietly. "I thought you'd gotten caught and had your blood replaced while we were fighting. A whole loop all alone."

Cage's eyes widened, "You too?" Then he finally took in what was happening. "Wait—Rita!?" he leapt to his feet and stared down at her wildly, "You're here! You're alive! The mimics, what about-"

"They're dead. Again. Just like they're supposed to be. Now get back down here or I'll make you get down here."

* * *

><p>"Alright, I've had a while to think about this, and I think I've finally found something that makes sense. Insofar as anything can make sense, anyway," Dr. Carter paced back and forth, hands clasped behind his back. "Now, you have to assume that the Omega is not a time travel agent in itself. We actually know this; if it could reset itself, then it would have been impossible for you to kill it in the first place; every time it died, it would just reset the day and try again. You would have been trapped in an infinite loop of time."<p>

"So we know that the Omega cannot personally travel through time. The Alphas, however, _can._ And you, Cage, were somehow infused with whatever agent that they used to achieve that." he paused, "I've still got no clue what that is, by the way. I'm thinking maybe tachyons or something, but that's basically the excuse used for time travel in every science fiction story ever, so let's not talk about that."

Rita rolled her eyes, "Get to the point, Carter."

He glared at her, "Hey, it's not like you've got a shortage of time, do you? Be patient!" He began to pace again, "So the Omega doesn't actually travel time. So what _does_ it do? And why would its blood allow Cage the ability to travel time without it? If he can loop without an Omega, what was the point of having one in the first place?" He paused, and a smile spread across his face, "But _then_ you mentioned the different timelines, and _everything_ became clear!"

Cage blinked. "Different timelines? You mean where the Mimics are still alive?"

"Yes, yes, that too, but more than that; even the _very first_ jump after the Omega was killed was a different timeline! You saw it yourself; you woke up in the helicopter, rather than on the base! What possible reason could there be for such a change?" He stopped, and turned to face them. "And that's when I realized! The Omega isn't the _boat,_ it's the _anchor!"_

Rita blinked. "Is there a reason for the sudden nautical metaphors?"

Carter sighed, "Look, think about a boat and an anchor. The boat is what you ride on to get from place to place, right? And if you were just driving it around, you could _generally_ stay in the same area. But without the _anchor_, you'll inevitably drift a little. You'll wander, and drift off, and find your way back...but never to exactly the same place. But if you have an _anchor..._ you can find your way back to exactly the same spot every time!"

He leaned forward and tapped the hologram of the Omega, slowly unfurling on the table. "The Omega is the Anchor. It kept the Alphas from drifting off into slightly different timelines. Without the Omega..." he shrugged, "You could drift."

"Drift. You mean, end up in worlds that aren't ours."

"Erm...yeah. Not wildly different; they've gotta be close to our baseline world. Probably. Without the Omega, your...targeting? Will be less accurate. But based on the fact that you've only had one seriously off-baseline loop so far, it's probably fairly rare. Much more likely, you'll just end up at slightly different points in time. You seem to have set your waking up in the helicopter as the baseline; probably because it was the first jump without the Omega to lock it in. But you could appear anywhere around then, or far earlier."

The scientist stood and stretched, scratching his scraggly chin, "Honestly, I don't think it's anything to worry about. Just run through it like normal. Or don't if you want; if you kill yourself, you should loop back to the new baseline."

"This is all just a theory, though, right?"

"Sure, but you're a time traveling alien hybrid supersoldier, I don't think you're going to find _scientific _answers anytime soon. Now, if you'll excuse me..." Carter dismissed the holographic projections with a sharp kick to the table, "There's a very stiff drink calling my name. Don't do anything I wouldn't do! And if you do, name it after me."

* * *

><p><em>And so the loops begin. Who knows what I'll do with this. I guess we'll find out.<em>

_This may or may not take place in the Yggdrasil Infinite Loops. Who knows, I haven't really decided yet._


End file.
